Everything about The Lower Paleolithic totally explained
The
Lower Paleolithic (or
Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the
Paleolithic or Old
Stone Age. It spans the time from around
2.5 million years ago when the first evidence of craft and use of
stone tools by
hominids appears in the current
archaeological record, until around
100,000 years ago when important evolutionary and technological changes (
behavioral modernity) ushered in the
Middle Paleolithic.
Early species
The earliest hominids, known as
australopithecines (personified by the famous find of
Lucy in
Ethiopia) were not advanced
stone tool users and were likely to have been common prey for larger animals. Sometime before 3 million years ago the first
fossils that may be called
Homo appear in the archaeological record. They may have evolved from the australopithecines or come from another
phylogenetic branch of the
primates.
Homo habilis remains, such as those from
Olduvai Gorge, are much more recognisable as humans. Stone-tool use was developed by these people around 2.5 million years ago before they were replaced by
Homo erectus about 1.5 million years ago. Members of
Homo habilis used
Olduwan tools and had learned to control
fire to support the hunter-gatherer method of subsistence.
Europe
The Oldowan tool making culture moved into
Europe from
Africa, where it had originated. In the north the Olduwan tradition (known in Europe as
Abbevillian) split into two parallel traditions, the
Clactonian, a flake tradition, and the
Acheulean, a
hand-axe tradition. The
Levallois technique for knapping flint developed during this time.
The carrier species from Africa to Europe undoubtedly was
Homo erectus. This type of human is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the
Balkans to appear relatively densely in
southeast Asia. Many
Mousterian finds in the
Middle Paleolithic have been knapped using a Levallois technique, suggesting that
Neanderthals evolved from Homo erectus.
Also in Europe appeared a type of human intermediate between Homo erectus and
Homo sapiens, typified by such fossils as those found at
Swanscombe,
Steinheim,
Tautavel, and
Vertesszollos (
Homo palaeohungaricus). Although it's unwise, given the current state of knowledge, to assume an exclusive association of any type of human with any specific type of tool, the intermediates seem responsible for the hand-axe tradition. Such an association doesn't imply that they necessarily evolved in Europe.
Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however, spread to a different range in the east. It appears in Arabia and India, but more importantly, it doesn't appear in southeast Asia.
At the site of
Monte Poggiolo, near
Forlì, thousands of stone handaxes have been found that date from 800,000 years ago.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Lower Paleolithic'.
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